Linode busts up Digital Ocean with price-matching speedy server

Penguin vs Penguin as prices plunge in Linux clouds

Common Topics

The world's ferocious appetite for gadgets and computers has worked its magic again, driving storage prices down enough for Linux hoster Linode to cut the price of its servers, making it competitive with young rival Digital Ocean.

The 11-year old company announced on its birthday that it was adding a new server class to its portfolio.

"Your feedback and input over the years has helped shape Linode into what it is today. And for that, we thank you," the company wrote. "Some of that recent feedback has been for a smaller plan, and we've listened."

The "Linode 1G" costs $10 a month ($0.015 per hour) and comes with 1GB of RAM, a 24GB SSD, a 1-core CPU, 125Mbps of outbound bandwidth, and 2TB of free data transfer per month.

This compares with an equivalent 1GB memory, a 1-core processor, and 30GB of SSD disk and 2TB of transfer server from cut-priced rival Digital Ocean.

There's some evidence floating around that Linode uses higher-quality SSDs than Digital Ocean, with users of Linode reporting access rates of around 900MBps for SSDs on its cloud, versus close to 300MBps on Digital Ocean. (Your mileage may vary – Ed).

Either way, the competition is a great thing for developers keen on either company as, just as Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are caught in a vicious pricing competition for infrastructure-as-a-service clouds, traditional hosters are coming under the same kind of pressure. ®

Bootnote

RAM prices, unlike SSDs, have actually been going through something of a spike over the past year due to a combination of factors, including a fire at a Hynix factory in late 2013 and the PC market's disappointing reaction to Windows 8. However, over a longer time scale memory prices have dropped dramatically and will continue to do so, especially when next-gen non-volatile memory such as HP's memristor or IBM's phase-change memory start making an appearance.